Jafar Panahi's Taxi

Jafar Panahi

Year

2015

Runtime

82 min

Language

English, Farsi

Country

Iran

Principal Cast

Jafar Panahi

Already revered among cinephiles for such
outstanding films as The Circle, Crimson
Gold and Offside, the great Iranian director
Jafar Panahi came to global attention
in March 2010 when he was arrested and
sentenced to a six-year term of imprisonment
for "propaganda against the Islamic
Republic." Although his jail term was commuted
to house arrest, Panahi was also
subjected to the worst possible punishment
for a filmmaker: a twenty-year ban on making
films. Nevertheless, Panahi has found
resourceful ways to circumvent this ban and
continue making his forbidden art: abiding
by the letter but certainly not the spirit of
his house arrest, he made This Is Not a Film
entirely within his apartment, and two years
later he collaborated with Kambuzia Partovi
on Closed Curtain, which was shot at his
summer house.

For his new film, Panahi retreats to an
even more confined location: the ingenious
Jafar Panahi's Taxi is shot almost entirely
within a cab that circles the streets of
Tehran, with Panahi himself in the driver's
seat. In the course of a day, the cab becomes
a stage (or a confessional) for the assorted
strangers that Panahi picks up, as the
director invites them to speak about their
concerns, fears, hopes, and expectations.
As Panahi coaxes forth this series of narratives,
the camera captures a panorama of
the vibrant, bustling, and fascinating city
through the car windows. Without ever
leaving the cab, Panahi quietly orchestrates
a multi-layered mosaic of life in today's Iran.

Welcomed with a standing ovation at the
Berlinale — where it was later awarded the
FIPRESCI Prize and the festival's top honour,
the Golden Bear — Jafar Panahi's Taxi is
one of the year's most essential films.